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The Politics of Water in Post-War Britain pp 149–181Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Water Safety

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Abstract

The combination of increased leisure time and a post-war ‘baby boom’ meant that after the Second World War increasing numbers of children were present in the landscape. This caused a great deal of anxiety in the press about their risk of drowning, as well as public health scares about the risks of contracting diseases – particularly polio – on polluted beaches. The result was a huge effort, spearheaded by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, to educate children about deep water’s potential risks, and the implementation a large swimming pool building programme. But as this chapter shows, the government resisted, until the 1980s and 1990s, any expensive clean-up of Britain’s beaches, even when pressured to mount such an effort by the European Commission.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See e.g. T. Collins, ‘Work, Rest and Play: Recent Trends in the History of Sport and Leisure’, Journal of Contemporary History 42, 2 (2007), esp. pp. 397–405.

  2. 2.

    NAUK CAB 134/1664, Eccles memorandum to Education Policy Committee, ‘County Colleges’, 8 February 1960.

  3. 3.

    House of Commons Debates, Fifth Series, vol. 687, cols. 729–30, New Towns Bill, Second Reading, 20 January 1964.

  4. 4.

    Duke of Edinburgh, ‘Introduction’, in J.H. Hunt (ed.), Accident Prevention and Life Saving: Papers Given at a Convention held at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, May 1963 (Edinburgh: E&S Livingstone, 1965), p. 1.

  5. 5.

    Royal College of Surgeons, Report of the Working Party on Accident Prevention and Life Saving (London: RCS, 1963), p. 48.

  6. 6.

    J. Walton, The British Seaside: Holidays and Resorts in the Twentieth Century (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 63–4.

  7. 7.

    H.S. Bird, Class, Leisure and National Identity in British Children’s Literature, 1918–1950 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. 113–28.

  8. 8.

    Hall, Running Water, p. 85, and pp. 117–27, 199-, 201.

  9. 9.

    NAUK HLG 71/2287, MHLG memorandum, ‘National inquiry into disused canals’, n.d. but filed in July 1952.

  10. 10.

    British Transport Commission, Canals and Inland Waterways: Report of the Board of Survey (London: HMSO, 1955), pp. 68–71; pp. Cmnd. 7248, British Waterways Board: Government Observations on the Fourth Report of the Select Committee on Nationalised Industries (June 1978), p. 8.

  11. 11.

    P.J.G. Ransom, Waterways Restored (London: Faber, 1974), p. 20; see Cmnd. 3401, British Waterways: Recreation and Amenity (September 1967), pp. 3–4, where the figure of 1,400 miles for ‘cruiseways’ is given.

  12. 12.

    Department of the Environment, How Do You Want to Live? A Report on the Human Habitat (London: HMSO, 1972), p. 156.

  13. 13.

    For a comprehensive list, see https://www.waterways.org.uk/waterways/restored_waterways, accessed 20 February 2013.

  14. 14.

    B. Harrison, Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom, 1951–1970 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 13–14.

  15. 15.

    BBC Radio Four, Broadcasting House, 14 July 2013.

  16. 16.

    CPA CCO 150/3/3/1, ‘Town and country planning’, Party brief for CPC discussion groups, December 1960; Pathe Newsreel Film, ‘Skyscraper London’, 1963, http://www.britishpathe.com/video/skyscraper-london-aka-gravel-pits/query/office, accessed 30 January 2013.

  17. 17.

    R. Mabey, The Unofficial Countryside (Toller Fratrum, Dorset: Little Toller Books, 2010 edn.), p. 52.

  18. 18.

    Quarry Managers’ Journal, The Directory of Quarries, Clayworks, Sand and Gravel Pits (Birmingham: Quarry Managers’ Association, 1939), p. 390.

  19. 19.

    C.G. Down, ‘The British Aggregates Industry: Planning and Environmental Issues’, Minerals and the Environment 1, 3 (1979), pp. 112–14.

  20. 20.

    T.U. Hartwright, ‘Worked-Out Gravel Land: A Challenge and an Opportunity’, Environmental Conservation 1, 2 (1974), pp. 139–43.

  21. 21.

    Quarry Manager’s Journal, Directory, pp. 250–52, 283–87; ibid . (1951), pp. 317–21, 282–84; Quarry Managers’ Journal, Directory of Quarries and Pits (London: Quarry Managers’ Association, 1961/62), pp. 347–49, 392–97; ibid . (1968/69), pp. 338–39, 371–73; ibid . (1972/73), pp. 302–3, 329–31.

  22. 22.

    T. Sharp, Georgian City: A Plan for the Preservation and Improvement of Chichester (Brighton: Southern Publishing Co., 1949), p. 34; P. Larkham, ‘Thomas Sharp and the Post‐War Replanning of Chichester: Conflict, Confusion and Delay’, Planning Perspectives 24, 1 (2009), pp. 52, 57, 60.

  23. 23.

    NAUK 381/25, Meeting between the Home Office and Local Government Associations, minutes, 22 February 1967.

  24. 24.

    On ‘manufactured sites’ as both sites of manufacture in the past, and re-manfactured sites, see N. Kirkwood, ‘Manufactured Sites: Integrating Technology and Design in Reclaimed Landscapes’, in N. Kirkwood (ed.), Manufactured Sites: Rethinking the Post-Industrial Landscape (London: Spon Press, 2001), esp. pp. 6–7.

  25. 25.

    M. Thomson, Lost Freedom: The Landscape of the Child and the British Post-War Settlement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 133–5.

  26. 26.

    CUL NCUACS 87.8.99/c581, Second European Meeting on Wildfowl Conservation, ‘Recommendations’, Appendix 2, 1966.

  27. 27.

    SWFTA, Royal Life Saving Society (hereafter RLSS)/ Explorer Films, Water Safety Award (1960).

  28. 28.

    ‘A Constant Nightmare: The Death Roll is a Long One’, Wigan Evening Post, 30 April 1965.

  29. 29.

    L. Karsten, ‘It All Used to be Better? Different Generations on Continuity and Change in Urban Children’s Daily Use of Space’, Children’s Geographies 3, 2 (2005), pp. 275–90; M. Hillman, ‘Children’s Rights and Adult Wrongs’, Children’s Geographies 4, 1 (2006), pp. 61–7; C.A. Tandy, ‘Children’s Diminishing Play Space: A Study of Inter-Generational Change in Children’s Use of their Neighbourhoods’, Australian Geographical Studies 32, 2 (1999), pp. 154–64.

  30. 30.

    Ransom, Waterways Restored, p. 25.

  31. 31.

    SWFTA, RLSS, Go For Green, Ready for Red (1960)

  32. 32.

    Glamorgan Archives (hereafter Glam.), Cardiff, Glamorganshire County Council files, BB/C/8/351, ‘National Water Safety Campaign 1970’: list of member bodies.

  33. 33.

    ibid. , BB/C/8/337, Water Safety Conference, programme, 10 November 1971.

  34. 34.

    The figures at RLSS, Analysis of Fatal Drowning Accidents (London: RLSS, 1971), p. 4, and appendix 1, p. 5, are revealing in this respect.

  35. 35.

    W. Davies, ‘Prevention of Death by Drowning’, in Hunt (ed.), Accident Prevention and Life Saving: Papers Given at a Convention held at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, May 1963 (Edinburgh: E&S Livingstone, 1965), pp. 231–5; E. Hale, ‘The Royal Life Saving Society’, in ibid. , p. 271.

  36. 36.

    e.g. General Register Office, Regulations, and a Statistical Nosology, Comprising the Causes of Death, Classified and Alphabetically Arranged (London: HMSO, 1843), p. 26. I am grateful to Dr Tom Crook for this reference.

  37. 37.

    Home Office, Report of the Working Party on Water Safety (London: HMSO, 1977), fig. 1, p. 165, and p. 179. For the Working Party’s recommendations on research see ibid ., pp. 122–3. The 1968–71 figures are from NAUK HO 381/42, Home Office memorandum to Working Party on Water Safety, ‘Accidental death by drowning’, n.d. but filed in July 1974.

  38. 38.

    RoSPA, Drowning: A Cloud Over Holiday Fun (London: RoSPA, 1978), p. 4.

  39. 39.

    RoSPA, Drownings in the UK (1983, 1985, 2001), available at www.rospa.com/leisuresafety/statistics, accessed 24 September 2013.

  40. 40.

    Home Office, Water Safety, table 1, p. 166.

  41. 41.

    Registrar-General for England and Wales, Mortality Statistics: Injury and Poisoning 26 (London: TSO, 2001), tables 3a–3b, pp. 28–31.

  42. 42.

    K. Jefferys, Sport and Politics in Modern Britain: The Road to 2012 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 78–86.

  43. 43.

    Labour Party, Leisure for Living (London: Labour Party, 1959), pp. 39–40.

  44. 44.

    Labour Party, A Sporting Chance (London: Labour Party, 1970), p. 1.

  45. 45.

    I. Gordon and S. Inglis, Great Lengths: The Historic Indoor Swimming Pools of Britain (Swindon: English Heritage, 2009), pp. 229, 257.

  46. 46.

    K.K. Sillitoe, Planning for Leisure: An Enquiry into the Present Pattern of Participation in Outdoor and Physical Recreation (London: HSMO, 1969), tables 63–64, pp. 122–3.

  47. 47.

    A.J. Veal, Sport and Recreation in England and Wales: An Analysis of Adult Participation Patterns in 1977 (Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 1979), table 3, p. 9, table 7, p. 35 and table 18, p. 81.

  48. 48.

    K. Fox, Sport and Leisure: Results from the Sport and Leisure Module of the 2002 General Household Survey (London: TSO, 2004), table 1, p. 21, table 3, p. 23 and table 5, p. 25.

  49. 49.

    U. Fox, Nautical Code (International) (London: British Safety Council, 1961); Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Archives, Birmingham (hereafter RoSPA) D266 4/1/24, Stoney to Fox, 2 January 1961, Tye to RoSPA Executive Committee members, 25 January 1961.

  50. 50.

    RoSPA D266/4/1/10, BSC Press Release, ‘Britain’s Stinking Beaches’, December 1966.

  51. 51.

    BFI, COI, Reach, Throw, Wade, Row, n.d., late 1960s.

  52. 52.

    ‘Home Safety Activities on Many Fronts’, Safety News 286 (May 1960); ‘Nationwide Water Safety Campaign Begins’, Safety News 287 (June 1960); ‘Water Safety Campaign Spreads Its Message’, Safety News 290 (September 1960); ‘Progress on the Water Safety Front’, Safety News 302 (September 1961).

  53. 53.

    NAUK HLG 120/1281, Ministry of Housing and Local Government Circular, ‘Dangerous places and water safety’, 8 July 1960, and same, ‘National Water Safety Campaign’, 6 July 1965; NAUK HO 381/28, RoSPA press release, ‘RoSPA seeks wider support for water safety’, May 1967.

  54. 54.

    RoSPA D 266/2/14/3, RoSPA National Safety Education Committee, minutes, 20 July 1962; for the number of local authorities involved see NAUK HLG 120/1281, Carey to Browne, 11 May 1965, and for medium-term funding NAUK HO 381/28, Heaver to Hilary, 26 January 1970.

  55. 55.

    ibid. , RoSPA National Safety Education Committee, minutes, 30 June 1967, on the earlier figures; see NAUK HO 381/28, van der Vord to Hilary, 13 October 1969, for the later increase in revenues.

  56. 56.

    NAUK HO 381/25, Stoney memorandum, ‘Government grant for water safety’, 2 February 1967, Head to Anson, 22 February 1967, Anson to Head, 13 March 1967.

  57. 57.

    D. Parker and J. Raven, Theodore the Water Wise Cat (London: RoSPA, 1985).

  58. 58.

    Glam. BB/C/8/351, ‘National Water Safety Campaign 1970’: leaflet, charts and posters available, 1970.

  59. 59.

    RoSPA D 266/2/26, National Water Safety Committee, minutes, 21 April 1965.

  60. 60.

    Glam. BB/C/8/351, RoSPA circular to local authorities, ‘Prevention of drowning accidents’, September 1967, National Coastal Rescue Training Centre circular to local authorities, 24 May 1972.

  61. 61.

    Central Council of Physical Recreation, The Water Sports Code: Some Recommendations for Recreational Users of Inland Waters (London: CCPR, 1970), p. 4.

  62. 62.

    RLSS, Life Saving and Water Safety (London: RLSS, 2nd edn., 1969), p. 14 (emphases in original).

  63. 63.

    ‘Dangerous Toy, Says Society’, The Evening News and Star (Essex), 20 August 1965.

  64. 64.

    RoSPA D 266/2/26, RoSPA National Water Safety Committee, minutes, 12 November 1969.

  65. 65.

    SWFTA, Walt Disney Productions, I’m No Fool in Water (1956; circulated 1960); RLSS, Water Safety Award (1960).

  66. 66.

    BFI, Don’t Take Airbeds on the Sea, 1965.

  67. 67.

    BBC Written Archives, Caversham, BBC Woman’s Hour transcript, 7 July 1971.

  68. 68.

    NAUK HO 381/26, Marine Trades Association to the Home Office, March 1972.

  69. 69.

    ‘Danger – Children Playing’, Motor Boat and Yachting, December 1974.

  70. 70.

    ‘How Sunday Sailors Face Danger’, Daily Telegraph, 9 July 1972.

  71. 71.

    ‘Dangers of Rubber Dinghies’, Daily Telegraph, 29 August 1974; ‘Seaside “Toys of Death”’, Daily Express, 16 August 1974.

  72. 72.

    NAUK HO 339/32, Carr to Beeching, 9 April 1973; NAUK HO 381/36, Home Office press release, ‘Government action on drowning accidents’, 14 November 1973, Shuffrey to Summerskill, 18 April 1974.

  73. 73.

    Home Office, Water Safety, pp. 1–2 and Appendix A, pp. 129–30.

  74. 74.

    NAUK HO 381/38, Henderson memorandum, ‘Specialist group on water safety – composition and terms of reference’, n.d. but filed in 1974; NAUK HO 381/39, Specialist Group on Water Safety, minutes of meetings in Devon and Cornwall, 11–15 November 1974, Plymouth, 14 November 1974, and Cardiff, 5 December 1974.

  75. 75.

    See Gloucestershire Archives Centre, Gloucester (hereafter Gloucs), Water Safety Committee, minutes, e.g. 4 May, 5 June, 13 September, 28 September 1966, and subsequent minutes on file.

  76. 76.

    NAUK HO 381/38, pp. 4–9.

  77. 77.

    Home Office, Drowning Statistics, England and Wales, 1975–1977 (London: HMSO, 1980), p. 6.

  78. 78.

    NAUK HO 381/41, Weston to McIntyre, and RoSPA memorandum, ‘Working Party on Water Safety: comments and proposals’, both 2 April 1976.

  79. 79.

    NAUK HO 381/43, Russell to Owen, 4 August 1977, Barnett to Rees, 21 July 1977.

  80. 80.

    ibid ., Home Office memorandum for Secretary of State, 8 August 1977.

  81. 81.

    ‘Action Urged on Deaths by Drowning’, The Times, 27 October 1977; non-committal answers from Ministers can be found at e.g. H. of C. Debs. vol. 953, cols. 46–7, Written Answers, ‘Working Party on Water Safety’, 3 July 1978, and H. of C. Debs. vol. 960, cols. 535–6, ‘Canals and Waterways (Safety Code)’, Written Answers, 15 December 1978.

  82. 82.

    ‘Water Safety’, Written Answers, H. of C. Debs. vol. 971, cols. 539–40, 27 July 1979;‘Rolling Back the Frontiers of Government’, The Guardian, 3 September 1979.

  83. 83.

    RoSPA, ‘Saving Lives and Reducing Injuries…At Leisure’, http://www.rospa.com/about/annualreview/leisure-safety.aspx, accessed 18 March 2012.

  84. 84.

    Hassan, Seaside, p. 139.

  85. 85.

    U. Lindner and S.S. Blume, ‘Vaccine Innovation and Adoption: Polio Vaccines in the UK, the Netherlands and West Germany, 1955–1965’, Medical History 50, 4 (2006), esp. pp. 442–3; D.L. Miller and N.S. Galbraith, ‘Surveillance of the Safety of Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccine in England and Wales 1962–4’, British Medical Journal 5460 (August 1965), pp. 504–9. See NAUK MH 55/1775, Bradley to Green, where a sense of desperation on this question comes out: ‘my own team is the whipping horse…we don’t know the answer…It is difficult to introduce any scientific quality into this question’.

  86. 86.

    C. Mallan, ‘One Family’s “Good Beach” Legacy’, BBC News Online, 31 August 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8226546.stm, accessed 26 February 2013. Tony Wakefield’s account can be found in J.A Wakefield, ‘Coastal Pollution – Aesthetics And/ Or Health’, in Institute of Civil Engineers, Marine Treatment of Sewage and Sludge: Proceedings of the Conference (London: ICS, 1988), pp. 45–56. For examples of media interest see ‘Sewage In Sea As Possible Polio Link’, The Times, 12 August 1957, and ‘Our Contaminated Sea: Sewage in Coastal Waters’, The Guardian, 30 August 1958.

  87. 87.

    BFI, Panorama, ‘Sewage Pollution’, 16 December 1957; BBC Written Archives, Caversham, T32/1225/1, ‘Sea Pollution Item, Filmed Interviews’, 16 December 1957.

  88. 88.

    ‘The Sea a Sewer’, Municipal Engineering 3546 (20 December 1957), p. 1565.

  89. 89.

    Hassan, Seaside, p. 141.

  90. 90.

    H. of C. Debs. vol. 578, cols. 29–30, Oral Answers, ‘Sea bathing (sewer outfalls)’, 18 November 1957; H. of C. Debs. vol. 578, cols. 86–7, Written Answers, ‘Coastal sewage discharge’, 25 November 1957; H. of C. Debs. vol. 580, col. 21, Oral Answers, ‘Poliomyelitis (sea bathing)’, 16 December 1957.

  91. 91.

    H. of C. Debs. vol. 579, col. 17, Written answers, ‘Seas and rivers, sewage outfalls’, 2 December 1957.

  92. 92.

    H. of C. Debs. vol. 595, cols. 109–10, Written answers, ‘Coastal waters (sewage outfalls)’, 17 November 1958; H. of C. Debs. vol. 608, col. 117, Written answers, ‘Sewage in estuaries and coastal waters’, 7 July 1959.

  93. 93.

    CPA CRD 2/27/16, Conservative Housing and Local Government Committee, minutes, 15 July 1959.

  94. 94.

    ‘MPs Uneasy Over Sea Pollution’, The Times, 28 June 1960.

  95. 95.

    BBC Caversham T32/1225/1, PHLS to Freedgard, 13 December 1957

  96. 96.

    NAUK FD 23/1018, Lobban to Wilson, ‘Viability of poliomyelitis virus’, 1 March 1955, Wilson to Lobban, 28 February 1955.

  97. 97.

    NAUK MH 55/1769, Culley, Welsh Board of Health, to Bradley, 23 April 1957, Bradley to Culley, 8 May 1957.

  98. 98.

    NAUK FD 23/413, Wilson note, 23 June 1960.

  99. 99.

    NAUK FD 23/1018, MacCallum to Wilson, on letter of 4 June 1955, and Wilson to MacCallum, 8 June 1955.

  100. 100.

    See the public views of the chairman of the PHLS committee involved (Brendan Moore, from the Exeter Public Health Laboratory, expressed in B. Moore, ‘Sewage Contamination of Bathing Beaches’, Perspectives in Public Health 80, 3 (1960), pp. 183–87. The full report is accessible as Committee on Bathing Beach Contamination, ‘Sewage Contamination of Coastal Bathing Waters in England and Wales: A Baceteriological and Epidemiological Study’, British Journal of Hygiene 57, 4 (1959), pp. 435–72.

  101. 101.

    Ministry of Technology, Notes on Water Pollution No. 46, ‘Disposal of Sewage from Coastal Towns’ (London: HMSO, 1969).

  102. 102.

    Medical Research Council, Sewage Contamination of Bathing Beaches in England and Wales (London: MRC, 1959), pp. 3–4, 18–1.

  103. 103.

    Two of the studies cited can be consulted, as A.W.S. Thompson, ‘Poliomyelitis in Auckland, 1947–49: An Epidemiological Study’, New Zealand Department of Health: Annual Report of the Director-General of Health, 1948–49 (Auckland: New Zealand Department of Health, 1950), pp. 75–102 and A.H. Stevenson, ‘Studies of Bathing Water Quality and Health’, American Journal of Public Health 43, 1 (1953), pp. 529–38.

  104. 104.

    ‘Medical Officer Attacks Pollution “Whitewash”’, Angling Times, January 8 1960.

  105. 105.

    NAUK FD 23/413, Howie memorandum, ‘Sewage pollution of the sea’, 5 October 1965, Lincoln to Wakefield, CAPL, 31 January 1968, and Lincoln to Coles, Ramsgate and District Trades Council, 12 March 1969.

  106. 106.

    A. Jordan and J. Greenaway, ‘Shifting Agendas, Changing Regulatory Structures And The “New” Politics Of Environmental Pollution: British Coastal Water Policy, 1955–1995’, Public Administration 76, 4 (1998), p. 676. The quotation is from ‘Polio Report “Nonsense”’, Angling Times, January 8 1960.

  107. 107.

    CCAC Kennet Papers, ‘Pollution – machinery’ file, Kennet to Greenwood, October 1968.

  108. 108.

    K. Pond, Water Recreation and Disease: Plausibility of Associated Infections: Acute Effects, Sequelae and Mortality (London: World Health Organisation, 2005), pp. 3, 192–219.

  109. 109.

    D. C. Johnson, C. E. Enriquez, I. L. Pepper, T. L. Davis, C. P. Gerba and J. B. Rose, ‘Survival of Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Poliovirus and Salmonella in Marine Waters’, Water Science and Technology 35, 11/12 (1997), fig. 5, p. 266.

  110. 110.

    Hassan, Seaside, pp. 146–7, 231–2.

  111. 111.

    UWMRC 200/C/Aug2000/555 Pt. I, DOE memorandum, ‘Advice on the implementation in England and Wales of the EEC directive on the quality of bathing water’, July 1979.

  112. 112.

    e.g. Coastal Anti-Pollution League, The Golden List of Beaches in England and Wales (Bath: CAPL, n.d, c.1969–70); ibid . (5th edn., Bath, 1985), iii, and UWMRC MSS 292B/650.1/2, Wakefield to Smith, 24 October 1960. See Walton, British Seaside, p. 125.

  113. 113.

    BFI, Panorama, ‘Sewage Pollution’, 16 December 1957.

  114. 114.

    BBC Written Archive, Caversham, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, 25 January 1972.

  115. 115.

    NAUK BT 243/103, Eric Croft, British Hotels and Restaurants Association, to Marples, 22 June 1961, Croft to Hazelgrove, 12 February 1965, Minister of State Mallalieu meeting with ACOPS, including Earl Jellicoe, minutes, 24 April 1967.

  116. 116.

    NAUK BT 243/541, Linstead memorandum of Mallalieu meeting with Jellicoe, 10 August 1967, Dunrossil memorandum, ‘Advisory Committee on Oil Pollution of the Sea’, 10 July 1968; NAUK BT 243/518/1, International Conference on Oil Pollution of the Sea, agenda, 7–8 October 1968, Rodgers meeting with Jellicoe in February 1969, briefing notes, 31 January 1969.

  117. 117.

    Labour Party, Labour Party Conference Report 1970 (London: Labour Party, 1970), Composite Resolution 5, p. 270.

  118. 118.

    ‘Council Directive of 8 December 1975 Concerning the Quality of Bathing Water’, Official Journal of the European Communities I 31/1, February 1976.

  119. 119.

    Levitt, Implementing Public Policy, pp. 87–9.

  120. 120.

    NAUK CAB 134/3392, Official Committee on Environmental Pollution, minutes, 11 October 1971.

  121. 121.

    R. Wurzel, Environmental Policy-Making in Britain, Germany and the European Union: The Europeanisation of Air and Water Pollution Control (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), pp. 184–5.

  122. 122.

    J. Hassan, ‘Were Health Resorts Bad for your Health? Coastal Pollution Control Policy in England, 1945–76’, Environment and History 5, 1 (1999), p. 53. For business lobbying on this issue see NAUK BT 243/164, Meeting between Dock and Harbour Authorities’ Association and Ministry of Transport, 18 February 1958, and Chamber of Shipping of the UK to Ministry of Transport, 27 May 1959.

  123. 123.

    NAUK HLG 133/45, MHLG, ‘River survey’, 1959.

  124. 124.

    NAUK HLG 120/1731, Water Pollution Control Paper No. 1, ‘Control of all discharges to tidal rivers, estuaries and the sea’, July 1972.

  125. 125.

    NAUK FV 81/109, Robinson to Towner, ‘EEC directive on the quality of bathing waters’, 9 September 1976, Howell report to Department of the Environment, 25 March 1975, Taylor to Robinson, 14 September 1976.

  126. 126.

    D. Pearce, ‘Environmental Appraisal and Environmental Policy in the European Union’, Environmental and Resource Economics 11, 3/4 (1998), p. 495.

  127. 127.

    A. Weale, ‘Environmental Regulation’, p. 116; A. Jordan, ‘The Politics of Multilevel Environmental Governance: Subsidiarity and Environmental Policy in the European Union’, Environment and Planning A 32. 7 (2000), pp. 1309–10; see ‘Britain Changes Mind and Decides to Oppose EEC Anti-Pollution Plan’, The Times, 6 October 1975.

  128. 128.

    BFI, Panorama, ‘Sewage Pollution’, 16 December 1957.

  129. 129.

    UWMRC 200/C/Aug2000/555 Pt. I, CBI memorandum, ‘Proposal for a council directive relating to pollution of sea water’, 3 February 1975; UWMRC 200/C/Aug2000/555 Pt. II, Butcher to Coiley, 20 March 1974; UWMRC 200/C/Aug2000/555 Pt. III, Biggs to Niven, ‘Uniform emissions standards’, 14 August 1975.

  130. 130.

    A. Barry, Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (London: Athlone, 2001), pp. 75–8.

  131. 131.

    Levitt, Public Policy, pp. 96–7.

  132. 132.

    Wurzel, Pollution Control, p. 194.

  133. 133.

    For Ashby’s views see E. Ashby, ‘Prospect for Pollution’, Journal of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce 121, 5203 (1973), pp. 441–50.

  134. 134.

    Ashby, Pollution, pp. 50, 62.

  135. 135.

    NAUK FV 81/109, Grimsey to Towner, 21 October 1976.

  136. 136.

    UWMRC 200/2/Aug2000/555 Pt. I, DOE press notice, ‘Bathing waters identified’, 14 December 1979.

  137. 137.

    Hall, Running Water, p. 70; Wurzel, Pollution Control, table 8.1, p. 208–9; Levitt, Public Policy, pp. 106–7.

  138. 138.

    NAUK FV 81/109, ‘Meeting to discuss the EEC directive on the quality of bathing water’, minutes, 15 February 1978.

  139. 139.

    ‘Britain is Beached by Euro-Drips!’, The Sun, 11 July 1979.

  140. 140.

    R. Stemman, ‘The Seaside Gets A Message: “Clean Up Your Act”’, Europe’ 84, p. 4.

  141. 141.

    J. Hassan, ‘The Impact of EU Environmental Policy on Water Industry Reform’, European Environment 5, 1 (1995), table 2, p. 50.

  142. 142.

    Hassan, Seaside, pp. 239–40.

  143. 143.

    Marine Conservation Society, Good Beach Guide: The UK Guide to Clean Seas (London: MCS, 2010), graph 1, p. 6.

  144. 144.

    R. Macfarlane, The Wild Places (London: Granta Books, 2007), p. 59.

  145. 145.

    R. Deakin, Waterlog (London: Chatto and Windus, 1999), pp. 3–4.

  146. 146.

    See, on this field, I. Zweiniger-Bargielowska, ‘Building a British Superman: Physical Culture in Interwar Britain’, Journal of Contemporary History 41, 4 (2006), pp. 595–610.

  147. 147.

    N. Carpener, ‘Final Note’, in Hunt (ed.), Accident Prevention and Life Saving, pp. 304–5.

  148. 148.

    On this see A. Offer, The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), passim.

  149. 149.

    J. Seabrook, The Leisure Society (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988), p. 182.

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    Glen O’Hara

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O’Hara, G. (2017). Water Safety. In: The Politics of Water in Post-War Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-44640-4_6

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